There is a LOT of baby information on the internet. A lot. A lot a lot a lot. And among that information is about 1000 different answers to every question that you want to ask, and that will just leave you feeling even more confused about things than you were to begin with. So here are 5 things that I would want to know, if I did it all from scratch again. These are my opinions only, obviously, not medical opinions.
A couple of procedures involved in pregnancy specifically filled me with a sense of dread and weren't as bad as I expected:
Is the Glucose test as gross as everyone says it is?
Before I had my Glucose test, I read that the drink would make me want to vomit and that I would feel lightheaded and icky for the rest of the day. I found the drink to be sweet, but nothing I couldn't handle, and while I was a little jittery as I waited the hour, I didn't have lasting effects (I stopped and got Chic-Fil-A on the way home to absorb all that sugar). This is just how it was for me- I know that the experience varies a ton from person to person, but take heart! It may not be so bad for you.
Does the Rhogam shot hurt as much as everyone says?
Everyone kept telling me that my Rhogam shot (its a shot they give you if you are a negative blood type to make sure your future pregnancies don't have rejection issues if your first kid has positive blood) would be absolutely horrid. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't pleasant (a needle in the rear really shouldn't be) but on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being, say, having a bikini wax, the shot was like a 2. This may be because I had a fantastic nurse, and also maybe because I was expecting it to be the end of times in regard to pain.
There were also a couple of things that didn't go quite like I expected:
About Ultrasounds:
I somehow didn't realize that the first ultrasound would be done from the inside rather than the outside. It makes sense, the baby is very small when they first show you the little peanut, but I was a little taken aback by that process. Its totally worth it, but it is a little uncomfortable.
When we first heard the baby's heart beat, the nurse talked over it the whole time, telling us some story about a Dr. she used to work with and how she wished he hadn't retired. She got done and pulled the wand away and we were like... wait. Was that our baby? Shouldn't there have been some pomp and circumstance?
At our gender ultrasound, I expected to want to cry or have really strong emotions when we got to see our little baby looking more like a baby than a peanut. My eyes did water (I have a weird problem with my eyes watering while laying down in dental/medical offices) which made the smartest THINK I was crying... but truthfully my emotions were pretty steady. We were obviously excited and she was beautiful, but it is kind of a weird experience to have someone taking a bunch of photos and measurements of your baby without being able to say reassuring things like 'everything looks good' or 'that may look like she has a three legs, but we're actually looking at her lungs'.
Blood Draws:
There was a lot more blood work in the beginning than I expected. If you have a tendency to struggle with giving blood, I would recommend asking your Dr. or the practitioner at the lab how many vials the order indicates before you show up there, having eaten only 1 piece of bread that day. I had an order for 7 vials, and got so woozy that I thought they were going to have to put it back. Eating, asking to lay down during the draw, and keeping my body temperature cool would all have helped with this, had I been smart enough to ask in advance.
Birthing Class:
We took an 8 week, one night per week for 3 hours course, which was a huge time commitment, but we feel like we learned a ton. I definitely would recommend taking a class, and keeping an open attitude about it. The breathing exercises the first night made me feel like an idiot, but by the 8th night I was all about breathing and relaxing and just embracing the weird.
No comments:
Post a Comment